The present invention relates to a medium processing apparatus and a controlling method of the same.
In a peripheral apparatus that performs a predetermined printing process by analyzing data received from a host computer, a function for generating a sound in accordance with a status of the peripheral apparatus has already been disclosed. For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 07-172032A) discloses a technique for determining a printing status of a printer by notifying a printer status or a change of the printer status using a sound.
The printer disclosed in Patent Document 1 determines whether to notify a status using a sound when the status of satisfying a determination condition occurs in the printer. The determination condition is selectively designated by a command from a manual operation panel or a host computer. In addition, effectiveness of notification carried out by a buzzer is set in advance in accordance with the determination condition. For example, when the printer enters an offline state in accordance with the command from the host computer, a buzzer sound is configured so as to be generated. In this case, when the printer enters the offline state, it is determined whether a function for generating an offline sound is effective. If the offline sound is effective, a predetermined buzzer sound rings. That is, the printer can recognize its state and can generates a buzzer sound in accordance with the state under a predetermined set condition.
Recently, in order to improve effectiveness of check processing, a process of electromagnetically reading checks has started to be attempted. For example, the process of electromagnetically reading checks has started to be attempted at banks Accordingly, a small check processing apparatus that can be installed at a bank has been suggested.
In the check processing apparatus, a magnetic ink reading device and a scanner are provided in a check transporting passage. When a bank staff receives checks from a client and allows the checks to be passed in the check processing apparatus, the check processing apparatus performs a reading process that reads magnetic ink characters or images on each of the checks, and endorses the checks. Information read from the magnetic ink characters or the images is transmitted to a host computer. The host computer receives the information and checks whether the information read from the magnetic ink characters or the images are correctly read. Then, the host computer transmits a command notifying a next process to the check processing apparatus in accordance with the check result (see Patent Document 2, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-149013A).
In this way, in the check processing apparatus, the process of reading data is performed in accordance with a reading command transmitted from the host computer and the read information is transmitted to the host computer. Basically, the check processing apparatus only performs a process in accordance with a command of the host computer, and the host computer performs an authentication process or the like that is needed for a high speed processing capability. With such a configuration, a high speed reading process performed by the check processing apparatus is designed.
It is considered that the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 can be employed in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 in order to generate a buzzer sound in accordance with a reading result of the check reading process. For example, when a buzzer sound rings in a case where the reading process fails, an operator hears the buzzer sound and can recognize that the reading process has failed.
However, the stand-alone check processing apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2 cannot generate the buzzer sound in accordance with an authentication result since check processing apparatus does not authenticate the read information. That is, the check processing apparatus cannot generate the buzzer sound as long as the check processing apparatus does not receive a command for generating a buzzer sound notifying the performance of a process in accordance with the authentication result.
When the command for generating the buzzer sound is separately generated in this way, the check processing apparatus can generate the buzzer sound in any state.
Generally, the command transmitted from the host computer is received by an apparatus in an online state, and the apparatus receiving the command analyzes the command to perform a process in accordance with the analysis result. Conversely, the apparatus cannot perform a process in an offline state in accordance with the command since the apparatus cannot analyze the command in the offline state. Moreover, when a large amount of data has been accumulated in a receiving buffer, even an apparatus in an online state may not be able to generate the buzzer sound in real time in some cases since a priority command such as one that generates a buzzer sound has to be sequentially analyzed and executed in a normal order.
The “offline state” refers to a state where data or command is transmitted from a host computer and received in the receiving buffer, but the received data or command is not analyzed and no process is performed. For example, the apparatus enters an offline state when a sheet jam error occurs or a sheet passage cover is opened.